CCSG Developmental Funds Awards

The Cancer Center Support Grant (CCSG) Developmental Funds Award (DFA) is funded through Georgetown Lombardi’s CCSG, which is in turn funded by the NIH. The purpose of the award is to encourage the initiation of promising new cancer-related projects leading to peer-reviewed funding and/or high-impact publications.

Developmental funds support basic, translational, clinical, and population science research as well as the Center’s Community Outreach and Engagement (COE) and Cancer Research Training and Education Coordination (CRTEC) activities by providing opportunities to investigate innovative research with an emphasis on strategic priorities for multi-PI collaboration across the Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center consortium.

The grant is a one-year award of $10,000 to $50,000 and is not renewable. Developmental funds are available to all LCCC members with a cancer relevant research focus, including basic, clinical, translational, or population sciences with the exception that investigators who have received developmental funds twice within the last five years will not be eligible for additional funds. 

  • Projects should aim to achieve Cancer Center strategic objectives and focus on one or more of the following areas of research:
  • Cancer-related health disparities and issues within the LCCC catchment area and/or underrepresented minorities
  • Cancer and aging
  • Survivorship research
  • Correlative science associated with an investigator-initiated clinical trial derived from cancer center science
  • Global oncology
  • Advancement of a target/biomarker along the translational pipeline (from bench to bedside or vice versa)
  • Intersection of Cancer and Infection

Current Awardees

2011/2012

  • John Casey, PhD, Ruth He, MD, PhD, and Xuefeng Liu, MD
    Long-Term Culture of Human Hepatocytes for Viral Hepatitis Research
  • Chris Loffredo, PhD, Kirti Shetty, MD, and Brent Korba, PhD
    HCV Mutations and Risk of Subsequent Liver Cancer in Patients with Chronic Liver Disease
  • Jeanne Mandelblatt, MD, PhD, and John Van Meter, PhD
    Neuroimaging of Cognitive Changes in Older Breast Cancer Patients 
  • Ronit Yarden, PhD, and Michael Johnson, PhD
    The Role of BRCA1 Ubiquitin E3 Ligase Novel Function in Chemoresistance
  • Johanna Kitlinska, PhD
    Cortisol, Neuronal Differentiation and Neuroblastoma Development: Is There a Link?

2010/2011

  • Aykut Uren, MD
    Development of Small Molecule Inhibitors for ERG and ETV1 Transcriptive Factors
  • John Deeken, MD, Kristi Graves, PhD, Arnold Potosky, MHS, PhD 
    Personalized Medicine through Pharmacogenetics in Treatment of Gastrointestinal Cancer
  • Ryan McAllister, PhD
    Primary Cells in 3D Biomechanics Assay: Motility, Force Generation, and Proteolysis
  • Anna Riegel, PhD
    Development of New Models of Early Stage Breast Cancer
  • Rabindra Roy, PhD, and Siva Dakshanamurthy, PhD
    Inhibitors of Human-N-Methylpurine-CNA Glycosylase and Chemosensitization of Glioblastomas
  • Yun-Ling Zheng, PhD, MPH, and Xuefeng Liu, MD
    Role of Non-Telomeric and Telomeric Activities of Telomerase in Cell Immortilization and Malignant Transformation

2009/2010

  • Christopher Albanese, PhD, Aykut Üren, MD, Milton L. Brown, Md, PhD, Jeffrey Toretsky, MD, & Bahram Moasser, PhD 
    Effects of Arsenic Trioxide or VMY-1-103, a GUMC CDK Inhibitor, on Medulloblastoma Proliferation and Apoptosis In Vitro and In Vivo
  • Yali Kong, PhD & Brent Korba, PhD 
    Development of Small Molecule Inhibitors for Hepatitis C Virus
  • Mary Beth Martin, PhD, Jennifer Eng-Wong, MD, & Celia Byrne, PhD 
    Role of Metalloestrogens in Breast Cancer

2008/2009

  • Robert Glazer, PhD, Stephen ByersPhD, & M. Blair Marshall, MD
    Tumor Stem Cell Signaling in Primary Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC)
  • Ian Gallicano, PhD, Partha Banerjee, PhD, & Christopher Albanese, PhD
    Narrowing the Definition of the Prostate Cancer Stem Cell
  • Celia Byrne, PhD, & Bassem Haddad, MD 
    Role of NOS in Breast Cancer: A Feasibility Study

2006/2007

  • Yun-Ling Zheng, PhD 
    Telomere Dysfunction and Breast Cancer Risk

2005/2006

  • Christopher Albanese, PhD 
    Development of Negative and Positive MR Contrast Agent for Cancer Imaging
  • Radoslav Goldman, PhD 
    Isotope Dilution of Peptides for Early Detection of Liver Cancer
  • Offie Soldin, PhD, MBA 
    Urban Environmental Pesticides and Childhood Cancer
  • Aykut Üren, MD 
    Peptide Inhibitors of Ewing Sarcoma Oncoprotein EWS/FLI1

2004/2005

  • Kevin FitzGerald, PhD 
    Functional Characterization of MLL2, a Novel Trithorax Protein
  • Peter Lebowitz, MD, PhD 
    Role of PTEN-Regulated Pathways in Breast Cancer Chemosensitivity and Prognosis
  • Andrew Quong, PhD 
    Microcantilever-Based Assays of Protein Expression in Breast Cancer
  • Offie Soldin, PhD, MBA 
    Urban Environmental Pesticides and Childhood Cancer
  • Yun-Ling Zheng, PhD 
    Telomere Dysfunction and Breast Cancer Risk

How to Apply 

Information is circulated annually to Georgetown Lombardi members about how to apply to the CCSG Development Funds Awards (DFA).